Air quality team rewards bus riders

State officials remind people of way to help reduce smog.

State officials remind people of way to help reduce smog.

May 02, 2008|SUE LOWE Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- Some people who rode Transpo buses in or out of the South Street station Thursday afternoon received little rewards. There were pens, letter openers, key chains, rulers, bracelets and other things from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's Office of Air Quality. Shawn Seals, a senior environmental manager with that office, said his crew was rewarding people for riding buses rather than driving their own cars. That's one way for people to help keep levels of smog in the air down, he said. Thursday was the start of what is considered the ozone, or smog, season. So a crew from IDEM was in the process of hitting five cities in three days to talk about it. Ozone is a good thing when it's high above the Earth's surface, where it blocks harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. But at ground level it causes breathing problems, particularly for the elderly, children and those with respiratory problems. Ozone is formed when sunlight and summer heat cook nitrogen oxide and volatile organic chemicals. And motor vehicles are one of the major source of those chemicals. Seals said the federal government tightened ozone standards for this summer. That means there probably will be more ozone action days, when people are asked to help out by changing some of their habits. But, Seals said, more ozone action days really don't mean there's more ozone. It's a reflection of those tighter standards, which are "slightly more protective of human health," he said.